There is an easy way to end terrorism at huge benefits for our country. We do not have to spend billions of dollars, or waste lives of our soldiers, our innocent country men and women, or those in the Muslim world.

Let us start with the definition of Terrorism. It is defined as the use of violence or threat of violence for a political, religious, or ideological change.

Since 9/11, we watched on TV thousands of hours from “terrorism experts” on how much terrorists hate us and their intention to kills us at home and abroad. The current Republican Presidential candidate, Ted Cruz says that Muslims are ideologically committed to murder or violently kill all of us.

The alleged terror experts discuss in details their speculations on what terrorists intend to do to us next, how we should increase our security at home and abroad, and turn our country into a police state, what we should do to the Islamic world from invading and carpet-bombing their countries, to nuking them. Nevertheless, missing from the discussion is the basic question as to why Muslim extremists attack us. As usual, the media, politicians, and so-called “terrorism experts” remain as evasive and clueless as ever because such a discussion would lead to ending terrorism for good. However, the answers as to the terrorists’ motives are not hard to find.

We have heard them from leaders of “terrorist groups” and read them on the internet, but the media and career politicians are unwilling to share it with the public and discuss how to solve the problem. Indeed, propagation of fear and the sporadic terrorist attacks are important for the war merchants and their political agents in the government and the media to justify our perpetual wars with Muslims and Islam. Terrorists’ activities help those politicians raise election campaign funds from the global war merchants (referred to in the U.S. as the Military Industrial complex) and ideologues who have interest in subjugating the Muslim countries. Consequently, politicians ignore addressing the basic question as to why Muslim extremists attack us because solving this problem would make it difficult for the politicians to raise election campaign funds and have a strong hold on our population. Also, we have a new breed of media terrorism experts, who make a living by coming regularly on TV and radio to scare us about our bleak future if we do not accept taking away our freedoms and continue our wars against the Muslim world.

Evangelical Christians now believe that it is an existential war for us because those Muslims will invade us, impose their religion on us and the Sharia law will become the law of the land. Brainwashing the public by this propaganda enables our governments to justify the perpetual wars that have not stopped against Muslims and Islam in the past century and continues in the 21st century. Despite the collapse of the economy in the West, our political leaders would not stop from supporting the interests the war merchants. Today the US owes close to 20 trillion dollars but continues to spend on its military more than the rest of the world does.

If you look deeper in the history of the terrorist groups such as Alqaeda and the Islamic State, you will find that the West created them, then we launch wars to destroy them and in the process destroy the Muslim countries such as Iraq, Syria, and Libya and turn them into failed states.

To justify their wars in the 21st century, we heard Farid Zakareya of CNN and President Bush saying, Muslims hate us because of our freedom. We heard radical evangelicals say that they want to kill us or convert us to Islam. All are lies designed to scare us enough to support aggression and killing or maiming innocent Muslims in unnecessary wars.

You would not hear on mainstream media that we have been in war against the Arab countries since World War I. As a result:

We destroyed Palestine in 1948 and created the first refugees crisis in the Arab world to accommodate European Jews who wanted to create a country for themselves by displacing the indigenous population of Palestine. Since then, Palestinians who still live in Palestine are ruled by the most oppressive military regime in the world.

We supported ruthless dictators to serve interests of war merchants in the Arab world and deprived the Arabs of freedom and liberty.

We created Alqaeda (by the CIA) and claimed that the billions of dollars spent on the intelligence could not uncover the 9/11 attack before it happened. Then there’s Osama bin Laden, who told us the main reason for the 9/11 attacks was the deployment of U.S. forces in the Middle East, particularly in Saudi Arabia, which he called “the greatest of “aggressions incurred by the Muslims since the death of the prophet.”

We destroyed Afghanistan, now it is a failed state.

According to the United Nations, economic sanctions against Iraq caused the loss of lives of 500,000 children. Then, after 9/11, the Bush administration lied to the American people and claimed that Iraq had biological weapons that will destroy us at home. He invaded Iraq, killed and maimed a million innocent Iraqis, created the largest migration of professionals from Iraq, and broke up Iraq in various factions. Now, it is a failed state.

One of the consequences of the invasion of Iraq was the creation of ISIS, which was a reflection of the despair of the Iraqis who felt victimized by the U.S. invasion and the government it appointed following the invasion.

We destroyed Libya and watched it fall apart in the hands of various competing terrorist groups. Now it is a failed state.

We supported the dictatorship in Egypt, impoverished its people and we are on the way of depriving them of the Nile River, which the lives of Egyptians depended on for thousands of years.

We destroyed Syria and created the second refugee crisis in the Arab world and the biggest since World War II.

In the past, we never felt the reaction of Muslims when the West committed terrorist activities against their countries. Now, the world is so connected that what happens in one part of the world echoes, in real time, around the globe.

In the past five years, Syria has been in war against terrorist groups supported by the West and their ideologues. President Assad of Syria referred to our double standards, he says, when Syria is attacked by terrorist groups, they are called democracy and freedom fighters, but when they attack us [in the West], they are called terrorists.

Imagine:

What would happen if we stop labeling Muslims who fight for their freedom as terrorists and stop calling our military personnel who invade Islamic countries as heroes?

What would happen if our politicians stop taking handouts from war merchants and ideologues that drive us into wars with the Muslim world, and plant fear and hatred in our hearts?

What would happen if we stop depriving the Palestinians of their human right to live with dignity in their homeland, side by side with the Jews?

What would happen if we stop supporting dictators to rule the Muslim world and stop invading their countries to kill and maim their children, depriving them of a peaceful life?

What would happen if we make our countries more inclusive, embrace the Muslims among us and acknowledge that they are victimized whenever a terrorist attack occurs?

What would happen if we spend just a tenth of what we spend on the military on helping the Islamic countries to recover and grow their economies?

Wouldn’t this put an end to terrorism?

The dream of those radical Muslims is for us to leave them alone in their Islamic countries and end our aggressions against their people.

Stop imposing our will on their people.

Stop invading their countries and killing their loved ones,

Stop conspiring against them on behalf of the war merchants and ideologues who steal their lands and resources, and

Stop dehumanizing their people.

The benefits for us at home and abroad are limitless: No billions of dollars to be spent on the military, no concerns about our security. Our government would not have an excuse to take away our freedoms and liberties.

Financially, we will save billions of dollars spent on wars and security at home and abroad.

We will be able to direct more funds to build affordable housing, build our economy, improve our schools and healthcare services, and shelter our homeless.

We will have politicians who work for us not for ideologues who serve the interests of foreign countries and want us to go to war to achieve their objectives.

We will live in peace in our country and spread peace around the world.

We will spare our country becoming a police state.

Moreover, we will be able to give the Muslims of the world the gift of living freely after five centuries of oppression.